Can Glaucoma Be Prevented?

While macular degeneration may take the lead as the cause of vision loss in America, Glaucoma is definitely in second place. The good news is that while there is almost nothing that can be done about macular degeneration, there is hope for those suffering from glaucoma, or those at risk for developing glaucoma.

Glaucoma is actually a group of diseases which are caused when high pressure within the eye results in optic nerve damage.

Think of the optic nerve as a large cable made up of thousands of small wires. Each of these small wires carries images from your retina to your brain.

Built up pressure can damage these small wires causing blind spots to develop in your vision. If glaucoma is not diagnosed and treated it can lead to blindness in both eyes.

Most Common Types of Glaucoma

Primary glaucoma: Primary glaucoma is the most common and often sneaks up on people. There are two main categories of primary glaucoma:

Open angle glaucoma: Open angle glaucoma is the more common of the two. It is caused by the drainage canal being slowly blocked over time. It is often detected by your eye doctor during routine exams.

Closed angle glaucoma: Closed angle glaucoma is also known as acute glaucoma. It’s characterized by blurred vision and acute pain in the eye. This form is less common, but does not have the gradual build up that open angle glaucoma does.

Childhood glaucoma: Also known as congenital glaucoma, this is a rare form and is usually diagnosed in children before they reach one year of age. It’s caused by problems in the development of the drainage canals before birth.

A Silent Thief

Glaucoma is such a gradual loss of sight that many people do not even realize that they have a problem until extensive damage has been done.

Steroid use: Extended use of steroids may increase the risk of developing glaucoma.

Myopia: People who are extremely near sighted are at greater risk of developing glaucoma.

Recent medical advances have lowered the risk of losing your sight if you have glaucoma. New techniques are now available to diagnose and treat the disease.

Treatment and Prevention of Glaucoma

There are steps that you can take to prevent the onset of glaucoma, especially in high risk patients. Aerobic exercises and a diet that is low in saturated fats can help to prevent the eye problems that cause glaucoma. While lowering your intake of saturated fats is a good first step, it is also important that you add foods to your diet that contain the vitamins and nutrients that benefit your eyes.

Changing your diet has a two-fold benefit for your health. It will provide the vitamins and minerals you need for healthy eyes and those same vitamins are great for the rest of your body as well. While high eye pressure is not always linked to high blood pressure the connection still remains. Your eyes depend on blood flow just as the rest of your body does. One way to control high blood pressure is to change your diet and exercise.

A healthy diet that is low in saturated fats found in red meat and dairy products can help to prevent glaucoma. Use vegetable oils when necessary many of them also include the healthy fat Omega-3. A diet high in vegetables and fish and chicken offers the best results. However, many people just don’t have the time to eat as much as a truly healthy diet requires. Many of us skip breakfast, grab lunch on the run, and may only actually sit down to eat our dinner.

For people with a fast paced life style an eye vitamin or eye supplement may be the best option. Many studies have been done that show adding vitamin supplements to your diet can lower your risk of developing glaucoma.

Regular exercise can help to lower blood pressure and may help to reduce high eye pressure as well. Before starting on an exercise program talk to your medical professional. They can help you determine what exercises your should start with and how often you should exercise. For some people it is necessary to start out slowly and build up an exercise program over time.

Your eye doctor can be your best friend. Anyone over 35 should talk to their doctor about tests to measure eye pressure. If you have any of the risk factors discussed talk to your doctor about scheduling eye exams on a more frequent basis. Discuss your concerns with your eye doctor, there may be new methods of testing and treatment.

Remember that just because a treatment or program works for your friend it does not necessarily mean that it will work as well for you. Your doctor is the best resource you can have for what steps you should take. Everyone reacts differently to treatments, you eye doctor can help you to find the best possible treatment for your condition.

About Orlin Sorensen

My vision started to get blurry as a young teenager. Soon I was wearing glasses for just about everything. This was a hard blow for me because I had always dreamed of becoming a U.S. Navy fighter pilot which required perfect vision without glasses or surgery. But I wasn't ready to give up on my dreams, so I looked into every possible alternative which led me to eye exercises. Through daily vision training and eye exercises, I improved my vision from 20/85 to 20/20 and passed the Navy's visual acuity test. In fact Men's Health declared this one of the "Greatest Comebacks of All Time!" Now, I'm sharing exactly how I did it with the program that helped me so people like you can improve your vision safely and naturally, without glasses, contacts or laser surgery.

Glaucoma – can be prevented in most cases – by careful eating – and a healthy lifestyle..
Things to do is the following:
1) no Coca Cola
2) no fizz drinks of any form
3) no caffeine … and
4) no coffee
5) no real strong tea (eg English tea)
6) no milk
7) no cheese(note goats milk and cheese may be okay….
8) no burgers and fast foods.
9) drink at least – 4 cups (250ml)of distilled water a day… this helps to detox the body…
10) eat watercress and rocket salads predominantly…
11) eat only 50-100 gm red meat per week – and stir fry the meat – without condiments and too much oil.
This diet seems very harsh – but what is best..??? – glaucoma, or a good diet.??
Also – use Orlin’s OCU PLUS tablets – they work extremely well…but the diet must be clean and mean…. Thanks folks.
Spencer.
10) no alcohol or wines
this seems to be rather harse

Avastin was initially created as a cancer medicine that interferes with the growth of cancer cells. Avastin is FDA approved for treatment of specific cancers but not macular degeneration.

I suggest talking with your eye doctor about Avastin and your specific case as Avastin has been mentioned to help in some patients who have macular degeneration, but not to cure it. Also be aware that many people have complications when using Avastin.

I was told that BILBERRY is very good for vision. The americans could not do night flying the british did because they used a lot of BILBERRY. I was using it but had to stop because i use plavix. Good luck Pat Im talking about night flying during the 2nd World War.

I recently came to know my rt optic nerve is slightly affected when i went for eye exam. iam having sight -6.00 in both eyes, should i do eye exercises, if ido the sight is reduced how come i know ,i am 29yr, what multivitamins i can use, iam having one kid, can i plan for 2nd kid why b’coz my optic nerve affected so in confusion wheather to conceive or not, kindly pleaze suggest genuinely and what suggest me exercises and vitamins for how long i have to use….

I am 24yrs old. I am having high myopia -10.25 & -10.75
In a span of 2 months my eye pressure went from 16 (both eyes) to 24(right) , 23 (left eye).
Doctor prescribed me to take eye drops (travatan Z) after using the eyedrops for the first time my eyes became red, and then doctore suggested me to move to lumigen now.

Are these eye drops really helping to reduce the eye pressure ?
in what ways i can take care of my health?

Hi
Over here in the UK we have reasonable eye care. I’m now 39 and have been living with glaucoma since the age of 20. I have lost about half the sight in one eye and the description of the condition as being a ‘silent thief’ is a good comparison.

I’ve had surgery (trabeculectomy)- basically a hole in the surface of the eye with a flap of tissue stitched to enable eye fluid to drain more freely. It was extremely uncomfortable for the first week in recovery and the weeks after a hard but 3-months later I’m very comfortable. What is daunting is the need for the other eye to have the same procedure since the majority of my sight is via the ‘good eye’ which now needs preventative care. Quite hard when running a family and a business!

Other treatments have been in the form of eye drops: timolol / travoprost and simbrinza which has harsh side effects however your eyes become immune to these treatments and eventually surgery becomes necessary. My advice is – take the surgery since it halts the advance of this awful diseaese

I have been diagnosed with a very small angle in the eye 0 – 1 degree. The specialist recommended a laser peripheral iridotomy to prevent future glaucoma. This was discovered as he wanted to give me atropyn to dilate the eye to see the retina and he said it was not advised for such a small angled eye.

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